Before I go on to make fun of every word in this article’s title, I do want to point out that this is a legitimate scientific discovery presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which seems like an absolute blast and not a bad reason to visit Texas.

Snow carrot? I mean, really? I give you 10/10 for creativity, but I’m having trouble moving past the picture of the snowman in my head.

And once you add ‘mysterious’ and ‘meteorite impact site’, I’m left wondering less about the science of the whole thing and more about the communication breakdown that led from the initial observation to that headline. It sounds like a game of ‘telephone’ gone horribly, horribly wrong.

I think there’s a legitimate point to be made here about how media markets scientific discoveries. Case in point: one of my favourite discoveries of the year, the ‘legendary metal from Atlantis‘ that was found in a 2,600 year old shipwreck off the coast of Sicily. Don’t get me wrong, I have a great time reading some of these articles, but it’s important to realize where the science ends and where the sensationalism begins.

As far as the snow carrots go, we can add them to the wealth of cool geologic features associated with meteorite impacts. In my mind though, I doubt I’m getting much further than this: